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One Lap of the Web: Panteras, Battlebirds and Patrick Dempsey's entrepreneurial brilliance

May 19, 2013

The 1972 De Tomaso Pantera Group 3 Factory Prototype 1 may be the most raced Pantera ever built. It also looks great without goofy fender flares and spoilers. Photo by Bonhams

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about.

-- Sure, later versions of the De Tomaso Pantera looked a bit outrageous with their wide fenders and Countach-like spoilers. But not this 1972 Pantera Group 3 Factory Prototype. One of roughly 30 examples produced with a hand-formed body, the car in the photos was also raced extensively. Like it? There's still time to register to bid on it May 25. Expect to pay $120,000 to $170,000.

-- Read up on the Battlebirds, first-gen Ford Thunderbirds converted into single-seat roadsters, at Hemmings. One reportedly topped 200 mph in 1957 -- not bad for a boulevard cruiser.

-- Racer and occasional actor Patrick Dempsey knows better than anyone that high-performance car parts are pricey and sponsorships can be few and far between. The solution? Supplement his income by selling marijuana, maybe. Hey, it was that or hair product.

-- It isn't too late to buy yourself a summer project -- so why not this rare 1976 Jensen Interceptor coupe? Well, we can think of a number of reasons to steer clear of these small-volume British performance tourers. But who said classic car ownership was about making sensible choices?